Recruiters Need To Be Way More Efficient Than They Are Now

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The recruiting industry needs a dramatic change. The practice of talent acquisition is highly inefficient.

Companies spend way too much time hiring the wrong candidates, which in turn leads to even weaker applicants, lower employee retention and a slew of other problems.

“It’s a money sink,” executives complain. After the initial losses, companies stagnate. Employees become restless, and top talent leaves to pursue opportunities where the grass is greener, the perks are better, and they are able to work with like-minded colleagues.

Long story short, recruiters need to be smarter about recruiting. It sounds easy enough, but companies still churn through bad apples like nobody’s business. While this keeps the recruiter busy, it does not keep the employer happy.

“Part of the reasons that cash-strapped businesses hesitate to start hiring, even when they need employees, is due to the actual cost of hiring,” wrote Annie Mueller for Investopedia. “It’s easy to forget that an employee, in terms of cost, means more than just the salary which can be substantial all by itself. But add in the cost of recruiting, training and more, and the dollars start growing.”

Heads up, recruiters — with companies needing to cut costs and streamline operations, your job needs to become way more efficient. No more wasted hours on the phone. No more sifting through piles and piles of resumes from unqualified applicants. No more awkward interviews, and no more frustrated hiring managers who are spending months with key positions remaining unfilled.

The future of a recruiter’s job is in data analysis, profitability assessment, team-building, and operations management. You’re basically going to become your company’s resident entrepreneur, and here’s why:

Data underscores today’s business world

Everybody who’s everybody is talking about data, big and small. From marketing to business analysis and finance, company departments are aiming to make more informed decisions before jumping into their action plans. You can’t escape data because it’s everywhere.

Don’t assume, however, that numbers alone are enough to drive organizational change. “At least, we live in a time when bits of data constantly zoom past our eyes and buzz past our ears, yet few of them inform us meaningfully and usefully,” Stephen Few wrote for the Perceptual Edge blog.

In the HR world, it’s the recruiter who is going to be the person distilling and making sense of employee data. More than anything, you’re going to need the right tools to conduct actual and meaningful analyses from information gathered from pre employment assessments by companies like Cream.hr. You’ll need them to make intelligent and informed decisions about building your customers’ teams.

Technology creates new opportunities

While job boards can be a good place to gather data, you will need to do more than blast your open positions through job boards and a variety of other channels. Out of the multitudes of applicants that apply, there is a very high probability that diamonds in the rough will be overlooked. You need to save your company money by developing a more targeted solutions-driven approach.

“The job board sites — Monster.com, Dice.com, CrunchBoard, AuthenticJobs, StackOverflow Careers — and frequent ‘hiring threads’ on Hacker news only help fill 19% of job openings in the current market,” wrote Matt Mickiewicz in an article for The Next Web. “The fact is, none of these really help developers cut through the noise of opportunities.”

According to Mickiewicz, some recruiters are even resorting to hosting iPod giveaways to find applicants. Surely, there is a more constructive solution out there. There is (but it isn’t straightforward), and it’s the recruiters job to put the puzzle pieces together.The trick is to find the right communities of applicants, ask the right prescreening questions, and get to know candidates on a personal level before they ever foot into your office. Technology will be invaluable for accomplishing those objectives.

Momentum is tough to generate

Recruiters can be forces of nature and be the people who are going to help businesses grow and scale past their existing limitations. To do this you need to be pushing boundaries and walls.

“HR professionals and recruiters, just like any profession, can no longer simply rely on one organization, or maybe even two or three organizations to build their careers,” Kazim Ladimeji wrote for Recruiter.com.

Recruiters have to be self-reliant technology pioneers. Don’t wait for your company to bring you solutions. Find exactly what you need, bring it to the table, and implement it. It’s up to you to ensure the longevity of the recruiter’s future. If you hold yourself back, technology will outpace you -- and quickly too.

So you tell us in the comments below — what is the future of the recruiter? It’s your turn to chime in.